The Immortus Project
by GoldElite-Warrior
Summary: What happens when the covenant assimilate the MJOLNIR battle armour? And now, what you've all been waiting for, Chapter 8! Aren't exams just so annoying?
1. Loosing another battle

The line of jackals moved slowly forward, their shields helping to protect the elites behind them. Plasma heated the air around the marines as they fought intensely, getting struck down, but still managing to lean themselves onto the barricade they had formed. From this angle, the rounds fires by the marines were barely doing anything to stop the Covenant. The Covenant only needed time to overwhelm the remaining humans, which was what worried Sargent Hallings. He turned to the marine beside him.

"I'm sure you know as well as I do by now, that if we don't call for backup, we're all going to fall into the hands of the enemy." He ducked to avoid a stream of plasma from an elite. "I need you to hold this position until I get back; I'm going back to base to call for reinforcements." The marine nodded and saluted as best he could with his bloodied arm as Hallings jogged off.

It would have taken Hallings the best part of a half-hour to get back the decrepit building they had claimed as their base, had another marine driving a warthog almost ran him over. "Sir! We have to get out of here now. I have two ghosts right behind me, and I can't seem to shake them off."

"Turn around, and head back", said the Sargent, jumping into the gunners seat, "Lets give them a little surprise." To that, the warthog turned around, and headed on an intercept course with the ghosts. As soon as Hallings saw one of the ghosts, he opened fire with the 12.7mm shells. He caught the first one on the wing, knocking it off course, and sending it into a building. The driver was thrown out of the seat, and smashed its skull on the hard concrete. The second elite wasn't as easy to kill, and kept weaving sideways, escaping the machine-gun shells, occasionally firing its heated plasma at the vehicle.

Then the ghost deactivated, the elite driver falling as its purple blood splattered over the floor. As the tracing of the APFSDS round slowly dissolved into the air. "Thought you needed some help" came a familiar voice over the Sargent's communication system in his helmet. "Thanks, Sniper-1" he replied, jumping from the gun turret. "You can go now, I will proceed to call for reinforcements on my own, now", he said to the driver while climbing into the now unoccupied ghost, powering it up. "Good luck" came the driver over his intercom, as the warthog roared around the corner. Hallings got most of the way to the base without much resistance. Interesting, he thought to himself, there should be more covenant around this area. The place was swarming with the creatures this morning, but they couldn't have become so convinced that they would win this battle to remove troops. He climbed out of the ghost, and rapped on the door. The slider didn't open. Wondering whether or not the marines had heard him, he knocked again, this time louder. Still no answer. Then he noticed the scorch marks on the door-handle.

Immediately, he backed down, and sneaked around the left side of the building. He looked though the window, and saw two grunts holding overcharged plasma pistols at the door, and a jackal, behind the grunts. He took out his silenced pistol, throwing the rifle on his shoulder, its strap holding it in place, and proceeded to the back of the building. Here he knew there was a fire escape on the second floor, and would use that to escape the jackal hearing him opening the creaky window. He climbed the stairs slowly, taking care to miss the trick stairs, designed to catch any covenant infiltrators off guard, and reached the fire escape on the second floor. From here, he took out a key, and inserted it into the slot in the door. The door slid open with a hiss, and Hallings peered around the door, his pistol at the ready. Fortunately for the Sargent, the room was unoccupied. He took a look into the next room, and found a lone, sleeping grunt, its plasma pistol resting on the desk next to it. He crouched low, and moved over to the grunt, making sure that whatever might be in the next room didn't see him. He took the plasma pistol from the desk, and shot the grunt in its head. Its body writhed for a moment, and then stopped altogether. Hallings moved to the doorway, and found an elite, with two jackals looking over a map. He would have to wait, before attacking the trio, but time was of the essence, since reinforcements were needed quickly. Luckily, one of the jackals signalled that it would go to wake up the dead grunt, and Hallings leaned to the wall, trying to keep out of view of the jackal who would be walking into the room. He crept up behind it, and snapped its neck, just before it was able to alert the others.

The elite was getting impatient, and called the jackal back. When it didn't return, the elite got suspicious, and grabbed its plasma rifle. Signalling the jackal to follow it, the elite walked into the room the marine occupied. All they found were the dead bodies of their former comrades. It was then that the Sargent got up from out of the desk, and dispelled the jackal as he did the other one. The elite turned around just quick enough to see the barrel of pistol, before the round sailed through its skull, leaving blood spattered all over the ceiling, due to the fact that the elite was at least two feet taller than Hallings.

Hallings went up to the map, and studied it for a moment, before rolling it up. Then, he went to the first floor. A quick reconnaissance showed that only the two grunts and the jackal inhabited the ground floor, and so Hallings finished them off from behind with a few shots from his silenced pistol. He got to the radio; fortunately the Covenant had left it alone, and so it wasn't too damaged. The marines who had tried to hold the fort hadn't been as lucky, the Sargent noticed as his gaze wondered over a pile of dead marines. He picked out a few clips for his rifle, and proceeded to the radio.

"Victor Base, this is Oscar team. Come in Victor Base." He waited a few seconds, and was answered by a relaxed voice. "This is Victor Base, we read you loud and clear, Oscar team".

"We need reinforcements, the Covenant have surrounded us, and we won't be able to last much longer. Can you send a team to help us?"

"You're in luck, Oscar team, we have a pelican just finished a battle. Pulverised a squad of covenant, and destroyed a wraith. I think it will be more than enough to suit your needs. ETA 1500 hours"

"Thanks, Victor Base, Oscar team out."

  
**This is my first story, so please read and review. I wouldn't mind knowing what you people think of it so far....**


	2. What should have been easy

"Listen up, guys, we've just received an invitation to another Covenant party, approximately seven hundred miles south-south-west of here" came a voice over the intercom, as the marines looked to each other in the back of the Pelican. "Alright, marines, you heard the woman; I want those weapons cleaned, checked and reloaded on the double. You know the drill!" Sargent Johnson called back to them. The Master Chief was already helping the other marines with their weapons, having already cleaned, reloaded and checked his own with the fluidity that was unique to Spartans.

Then Cortana spoke into his helmet. "Chief, we've got problems. I've detected three phantoms and a special operations dropship heading in, fast. If we don't get out of here and find cover soon, they'll be all over us!" He thrust the assault rifle he was checking back to its owner, almost breaking the marines ribs with his strength, and apologised, before climbing to the front of the ship to where the Sargent was.

The Sargent turned back to him, knowing that the Master Chief would only tell him things necessary to the mission and looked into his visor. The Chief said in a low voice, "We're going to be in trouble if we don't get some cover soon. There are more Covenant on our tail than we will be able to dispatch in the air. We may just have a chance to defeat them with something sturdy to walk on; namely earth." Before the Sargent was able to alert the pelicans' driver, one of the engines were hit by multiple plasma blasts, and burst into flames.

"Hold on, marines, this is going to be one hell of a rough landing!" the driver shouted through the intercom. Then they hit the ground.

The Pelican's nose crumpled as its decent brought it into contact with the ground. Had it not been for the straps built into the seats, the marines would probably have died in that crash. Fortunately, though, they were all ready to scatter for cover, save one marine who had been knocked unconscious. The phantoms made a slightly better landing, and their troops, too, were able to climb out easily, but this time to search for the survivors. The special operations dropship stayed in the air, ready to help if it was deemed necessary by the commander.

The elite who had been told to inspect the pelican for survivors first, noticed the remaining soldier, but dismissed him as dead. The Master Chief took advantage of the Elite's preoccupation, ran up to it from behind a rock and brought his rifle deep down into its spine. The elites shields flickered and died, as did the victim. Just as the super soldier turned around to see how the marines were doing, an overcharged plasma bolt hit him square in the leg, causing his shields to stop working. It wasn't long before Jackal who had fired the bolt had its arm snapped in two, and its body filled with the lead of a semi-automatic primitive weapon. The Chief tried to look back at his comrades for the second time, and was pleased to see that they were holding their own, and even slowly dispatching the covenant grunts and jackals, one by one.

But now it was time for the special operations dropship to land. The Spartan picked up a plasma grenade and ran towards dropship, his shields trying to recharge, but getting hit by plasma every so often. He primed the grenade.

Three seconds….

The first Elite ran out, looked at the blue smoke coming out of the Master Chief's hand and immediately called out to its fellow attackers. They saw why, and decided to fan out, and try to take the super soldier from behind, so that there would be no cluster for the Chief to obliterate.

Two seconds…

Cortana made a quick scan of the best place to throw the grenade. "There." She said, marking the spot with a navigation point on the Chief's HUD. The super soldier threw the grenade with accuracy, and it hit one of the grunts in the chest. The leading elite, thought quickly and peeled the it off of the grunts chest.

One…

He brought his arm back, ready to throw it. The Master Chief tried to back away, but another elite and a row of grunts prevented him from moving anywhere. More elites coming up beside the leader made shooting that elite out of the question. None of the other marines had noticed, as they were too busy fighting the original Covenant.

Then the marine in the pelican woke up. He climbed out, and saw the Master Chiefs position. Held up his pistol with what little strength he had in him and fired. The Elites skull crumbled before the round.

Zero…

The grenade exploded before the elites' body hit the ground. The grunt that the Spartan had originally thrown the grenade onto got caught in the blast, as well as one of the elites. Then, everything went black, as the elite behind him brought its plasma rifle into the Master Chiefs helmet. "Stupid Human" it spat, as the green body slumped onto the ground. "We have your green friend. Surrender now, and we will not kill you." It said in a louder voice, barely recognizable as English. "for now…." It added under its breath, and kicked the green lump…

****

Well, this is the second chapter to my story, I hope it's better than the first. Thanks ColianKnight for your help. I tried to break up the battle and make it more interesting. Well, anyways, please read and review. There isn't much left to say….


	3. The Immortus Project

What happened over the next few days, the Master Chief could not recollect with accuracy. Faint memories of familiar voices: "What are they doing to him?", "What the hell?", "They can't possibly do that, can they?"

"Chief...Chief...Can you hear me? At last..." The Master Chiefs vision slowly began to focus. He sat up, and looked around. "Where are we, Cortana?" was his immediate reply. When he saw the plasma screen in front of him, Cortanas' answer seemed obvious. "We're in a Covenant holding cell, Chief. Are you okay? You took quite a beating in that room. It was fortunate that they overlooked the crystal system I'm stored in, otherwise they would probably have taken me off of you. They seem intent on trying to capture any AI's."

The Chief didn't reply; he knew Cortana could read the battle suits self diagnostics, and was only asking out of the politeness she was programmed to have. He felt fine. What bothered him was that the plasma screen that was holding him in his cell was different to the ones he had encountered on the Truth and Reconciliation and a few other ships, but he was unable to determine how.

"How you feeling, Chief?" a Marine in the opposite cell asked, not being able to read his suits systems like Cortana. The Spartan just nodded in answer and walked up to the screen. He looked around it, before thrusting his fist right into it. His shields were brought down instantly, but the plasma screen also failed. An alarm went off, and another plasma screen activated a half foot in front of the first one.

"I wouldn't do that, Chief; the Covenant made this high security cell for you, now that they know your limits." Cortana said into his helmet.

"What do you mean?" he replied, annoyed that Cortana didn't warn him about the security before he did that.

"You don't remember a thing, do you? OK, well, when you were knocked out by that elite, we knew we wouldn't last long against a special operations squad, and surrendered. We were all taken into these holding prisons. Then, the Covenant decided to take what they have referred to as the once in a million chance of seeing what makes Spartans the way they are." The Master Chief cursed at his allowing himself to be used like that. Now all of the questions from his memories made sense.

"They didn't find anything out, though, did they?" he said, already knowing that the answer wouldn't be "no". Though he hated to admit it, he knew the Covenant were smarter than not to try to understand the way things worked.

"Well, actually, the Covenant have decided to start their own version of the Spartan project, one that they have named the Immortus project."

"This doesn't sound good."

Before Cortana could reply, the plasma screen opened up. Five gold elites stood behind it and told him to walk to the door. Since it seemed the Master Chief had no weapons, he didn't try to resist. Training had always taught him to wait for the right moment to strike.

A few corridors later, he was thrown into a large room and the door was locked behind him. Then the walls became transparent, and thousands of elites of all ranks looked in. The Chief noticed a table in front of him, holding up his battle rifle and a deactivated plasma sword. He picked them up, conscious of the hoards of elites watching his every move. As soon as he had done this, the doors at the other end of the room opened, and out stepped what looked vaguely like an elite.

It was about a foot taller than was average for that sort of creature, and its armour was a platinum colour, a colour that the Master Chief had never seen before. It too wielded a plasma sword, but instead of a battle rifle, it held a purple elongated rifle, that the Master Chief didn't like the look of.

Then the elite charged at the Chief. Activating his sword, the Chief started running too, but the elite had already covered twice the ground the he had done in the same time. He lunged with his sword, fell short and was thrown back into a wall due to the amazing power that this super-elite had.

"This isn't good," he muttered to himself bringing out the rifle, and firing a few shots at its head. The elite barely noticed that it was being fired at, as it brought up its own rifle and fired that at the Master Chief, who managed to dodge the superheated plasma and fire a few rounds directly into the barrel of the Elites weapon. The weapon blew up, plasma leaking and burning holes in the floor, but barely making the elites shields flicker. It re-activated its sword and lunged at the Chief.

The Battle rifle was cut in half, as the plasma heated the metal to temperatures it wasn't designed for. The Elite struck again, but was cut short by the Master Chief's own sword.

Time seemed to stand still, as the two super-soldiers held their own. But only one of them had a starship-grade AI in their battle suits. "Master Chief," Cortana said calmly to him, " I have modified your shield generators to send out an electronic pulse that should overload that elites generators when you touch it, since I believe their system is modelled on yours. Although this will take out your own shields, it will give you a better chance at defeating that thing."

"I hope you're right, Cortana" he said, as he ducked under the opponents sword and hit it on the back. All at once, both shields flickered out.

The Elite shouted something in its mother-tongue, and lunged its claw out at the Master Chiefs throat. And held him against the wall, three inches off the ground.

Then, the Master Chief did something that made the entire Covenant crowd gasp as one. He brought the Plasma sword down and pulled it through the elites stomach. The elite let go of him, and both fell to the floor.

Then both got back up. The elite brought its sword down hard, clashing with the Master Chiefs, which was already beginning to overheat. Whatever the elites armour was made of, it took one hell of a beating. A crackling sound was made the Chiefs sword overheated and burnt out. The elite took advantage of this and brought its sword up over its head to deliver the final blow.

The entire Covenant crowd started to cheer at the first being who would single-handedly overwhelm a Spartan-II a few seconds from now.

But the Master Chief knew better. He kicked the elites knees, which snapped backwards with a sickening crunch. The elite dropped the sword, which the Spartan picked up and shoved back into the opening made by his last attack.

Finally, the elite died. None of the crowd moved, as this seemingly indestructible being pulled the sword back out of the Immortus-I, and prised the locked door open with his sheer strength.

"Shouldn't it have died?" an elite from the crowd asked.

"Not today," the Master Chief muttered under his breath. "I have some soldiers to save first."

"WHAT? HOW? WHERE IS IT?" the prophet yelled at the gold elite.

"It is heading back down to the holding bay; reports indicate that it shall attempt to rescue the other captives." The elite replied humbly. The prophet calmed a little.

"Fine. Let it. The humans are of no match for us, but that bastard cyborg is beginning to get on the council's nerves. If they hear of this incident…..no, they must not. I want half of the remaining Immortus-I products to go find it and destroy it. The other half will be used to further this project; for this is but one Spartan we are dealing with. I will not tolerate any more failures, do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir, I shall do as you order right away."

"Good. For your sake, lets hope you don't end up like your predecessor." The prophet pointed to an elites head mounted on the wall.

"Yes sir" the elite replied, once again, and hurried off down the hallway.

****

And thus concludes another chapter. This one is probably my favourite so far as it shows that the Spartans finally have enemies worthy of their time and skill. What will happen next? Only time and a few reviews will tell :). I wouldn't mind knowing what you people think, so again, I ask you to read and review like I do at the end of each chapter, so that I know whether there are any ways to improve my story that I haven't noticed.


	4. Failures and Encounters

"…and that's why this ship is called the Bountiful Hunter." Cortana finished.

"Well, at least the Covenant have a sense of humour" the Master Chief chuckled as he walked down yet another hallway. "So, are you sure you know where you are going? I don't remember this." He pointed a door that was heavily dented in the middle.

"There doesn't appear to be any movement inside; I suggest that you try to open the door. You never know, there might be some weapons inside, and your plasma sword is running low on energy."

"Good point" the Chief muttered as he looked around for any passing grunts, before gripping the gap between the doors, and pulling them apart. What met his eyes was not a pretty sight.

Just like with the Spartans, it appeared that the creation of the Immortus soldiers was also made up with some trial and error. Countless beds occupied the room, each of them with what appeared to be an elite on them. The Master Chief made a quick scan of the room, and found that only two of elites were still alive, although one seemed to be in a coma. He walked up the conscious one, which was groaning silently.

The elite noticed the Spartans presence, and slowly opened its eye.

"Human" it whispered, so quietly that had it not been for the Master Chiefs enhanced hearing, he wouldn't have noticed it. "Kill me"

"Not before I get some answers." The Chief replied harshly. "What happened?"

The elite held up a half mutilated arm, pointing to a computer terminal. "Answers" it said, louder, but still barely audible.

The Master Chief walked up to the terminal. "Put me in right there." Cortana said. "This terminal appears to be detached from the rest of the ships mainframe, so there should be no problem with the Covenant AI's. The Chief did as Cortana asked him.

The elite pleaded to be killed again. Leaving Cortana to figure out what to do, the Chief walked up to it. It wasn't pleasing to look at, even for the battle-hardened soldier. It reminded him of the crippled Spartans that he had once seen, and almost felt sympathetic for it. This elite must have felt worse than it looked, if it was asking for death by a human, so he placed one hand on its shoulder, and the other on its head, and twisted.

The elites spine was immediately snapped in two, but its owner did not die. Instead, it coughed up blood before writhing uncontrollably. The Master Chief swore as he activated the sword he held, and cut its head off.

"These things are remarkably strong" Cortana said over the intercom in a concerned manner that the Chief noticed immediately.

"What's wrong?" he asked

"You're not going to believe this, but they're already working on the Immortus-II project. They sent the data on the original project to what they call the 'council'. I'm not entirely sure what that is, so I'm going to hack into the Covenant Battlenet as soon as I'm back in your suit. As you already know, this computer doesn't have access to anything out of it's system."

"Yeah…sure…" the he replied, fixing his gaze on a glass cupboard. Filled with weapons. He walked over to it, smashed the glass casing, and pulled one of the weapons out. It was exactly the same as the purple weapon that the platinum elite had carried.

"Whoops," Cortana said.

Then an alarm went off.

"We have to get out of here, NOW!" Cortana said, rather urgently.

"Agreed" The Master Chief pulled the construct out of the terminal and reinserted her into his helmet. He placed a plasma grenade onto the terminal, before they took off down the corridor.

Inside the mess hall, the alarm suddenly went off. All of the grunts who were sleeping woke up and added to the chaos by running around in circles, screaming "We're all gonna die!!!"

It was the elites who first reached the room that the Master Chief had so recently been in. Unfortunately for them, they noticed the blood surrounding the body the Chief had killed before they noticed the blue smoke of the plasma grenade.

Only one made it out of the room alive. It called for it's fellow gold elites to help it track down and ambush the cyborg before it got off the ship.

"Okay, so the council is basically a bunch of high ranking covenant who decide what happens. Great. Why would the Immortus data be sent to them, though?" the Master Chief asked Cortana, while inputting the commands to unlock the cells, "I'm sure they have plenty of minions to file the data for them."

"Well, it's only a thought, but I believe that the Council probably has apparatus a lot more advanced than this ship. Remember, this is a military ship, not a research one."

"Good to see you're back, Chief" the Sargent said as soon as the plasma screens had been deactivated..

"Nice to see you lot are okay too, but we have to get out of here, now. I'll debrief you once we get off this ship. Cortana: a nav-point, if you will." The Spartan replied.

"Of course" and with what, a blinking light formed on his HUD.

They all hurried out of the room, the Master Chief leading them, when they came across the group of gold elites.

"Go. Now. I'll meet you back at base camp." The Chief said in a low voice. "Here, take this." He said, handing the Sargent the weapon he had found in the glass case.

The humans ran off, leaving the super-soldier holding a fragmentation grenade and his sword. The cyborg and the elites just looked at each other, before the group of elites parted.

"Oh dear." The Master Chief commented, as another Platinum-coloured elite showed up, only this one looked angry.

"First you destroy an entire fleet of our ships. Then you cause problems with the Council. Congratulations; you have done what no other Human being has done. However, I shall not let you cause any more problems." It said, slowly walking towards the Chief.

Then a flash of green, behind it, which only the Master Chief noticed. Suddenly five plasma grenades where plastered to the platinum elites skull.

"GET DOWN!" Cortana shouted at him, even though the Chief had already dived backwards.

There was a huge explosion, and many rounds shredded the flesh of anything that attempted to move. Except one thing decided that it would not remain motionless, and a few rounds wouldn't stop it.

Although the Master Chief's plasma sword would…

****

A fairly interesting chapter, which I don't think is as good as the rest. I was basically trying to find a way of making the Master Chief walking down some corridors into a chapter. I'm not sure if it worked, so please read and review. And I deliberately left it as a cliff-hanger (well, that's what I hope the effect was), so that I can say: If you want to find out what the rest of the chapter is like, review it!!!!! (Insert evil laugh here) :)


	5. The Bountiful Hunter

The new Spartan stepped through the smoke, to find the one who wielded the plasma sword. He was gone.

"Damn, we're too late."

"I have located him, but to get there, we are going to need another shield generator. The one you have doesn't have enough energy to jump again. I'm marking it with a nav-point on your HUD now."

He ran off to find the oversized battery, then he would find his target."

**************************************************

"Where is everything, Cortana?" The Master Chief said. When he had killed that elite, the hall seemed to turn into smoke, but when the smoke cleared, the entire hall seemed to be devoid of life. And death, for that matter. Everything had vanished.

"I…I don't know…" Cortana said slowly. "I suggest, though, that we try to find a way off this ship, while we can. I'm going to pull up some of the ships logs, and see if they can provide an answer."

"Fine." And with that, the Master Chief set off to where he remembered the hangars to be.

After a while, it was clear that he had no idea where he was going.

"Cortana, where are we?" He asked

"Not where you think we are." She replied, "You'll never believe it, but this isn't the Bountiful Hunter. Well, at least not the way we remember."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, according to the ships schematics, this is the Bountiful Hunter. Only it seems to have been heavily overhauled. The outer hull is made of a completely different material, and the engines resemble those of a CCS-class warship, only much smaller.

"But in order to do that, they must have at least needed some time to redecorate the place, right?"

"Yes, which brings me to my next point. I don't think we are where we were a few minutes ago. Actually, to be technically correct, I don't think we are where we were a few years ago."

"Great. I have a plasma sword on low energy, and I'm on a ship in the future. I the Covenant managed to continue the Immortus Project, then there won't be much I'm going to be able to do."

"In which case, you definitely aren't going to like this. This ship is Earthbound. Which wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that it has an entire load of Immortus-III products on it. I advise that we try the get off this ship right now. I'm brining up a nav-point or the nearest exit now."

The Master Chief was just about to run to the exit, when he heard a low voice suspiciously like his own shout.

"WAIT!". The Master Chief turned around to see another Spartan. Although this Spartan was different, somehow. His battle suit showed a likeness to his own, but had more defined sections to it."

"Who are you?" He said, activating plasma sword. It shimmered and sparked a few times, as a result of the lack of energy it had, but stayed active.

"You." The figure said calmly.

"He's right." Said Cortana as if in a dream.

"Well, not quite. He's the future you." Said the AI in the other suit in a manner-of-fact tone. It sounded exactly like Cortana.

"You're what?" The Master Chief asked the other Spartan.

"You. I'm you. I'll try to explain later, but at the moment, our orders are to get to the bridge. Now."

"Give me one reason I should believe you." The Chief said.

"I don't need a reason. Either you come with me, or you become cannon-fodder. It's your choice." And with that, the future Chief ran off. With a sigh, the original Spartan reluctantly followed.

He had quite a time keeping up; this new Spartan seemed to be a lot quicker than himself. They encountered very few enemies on board this craft, and any they did encounter, were efficiently dispatched by the future Chief. Even the grunts here seemed to be a lot more muscular than he remembered them to be.

"Getting to the bridge will allow us to take control of the ships steering. Once the Covenant realise where we are, they will try to launch an assault on us, but should only be able to use close-combat weapons, due to the fragile nature of the circuitry on the bridge. We will have approximately five minutes to do our job, and get out of there," Cortana was filling the original Master Chief in on the mission specifics. "Then, we need to make our way to the engine room. It should provide enough radioactive disturbance to prevent the Covenant from tracing our jump back to the 'past '".

The doors to the bridge opened up, and what met both of the Master Chiefs eyes was not what they were hoping for. It seemed that the reason that the halls were empty was because most of the Covenant were waiting to ambush them at the bridge.

"Maybe we should come back later" said the original Master Chief uncertainly. He turned around slowly, only to meet the other half of the crew forming behind them.

"You should be able to use this" The future Chief threw a now outdated plasma rifle the Spartan. "Get to the controls. Try to take the ship away from earth. Then destroy the panel. I will try to hold the enemy. On my mark. Three…..two……one……go!"

They both ran forward, weapons blazing, the light of the elites shields reflecting off the shiny walls. The future Chief ran into an elite, and shoved the butt of his rifle into its face. Knocked back, the elite fell into one of its friends, who pushed it back.

The rounds of his rifle were aimed at the right shoulder of the elites. It was rumoured among the regiments, that there was a switch that controlled the shield active state of the elites, and was placed there. No-one had survived long enough to test this out, though. Either way, if it didn't make them easier to kill, it would make them using their right hands for holding weapons a whole lot more difficult. 

Two elites ran towards the original Spartan, he turned around, and pushed his sword into the stomach of one of them. While the elite was pulling the sword out itself, he shot the other elite with the plasma rifle, before turning back and trying to fight his way to the control panel.

An elite jumped into the air, with power that easily surpassed the original Chiefs, and brought its sword down onto the future Chiefs helmet. The Master Chief dropped to the floor, and all of the elites turned to the Spartan that still moved.

"Hurry up!" The original Cortana shouted into the Master Chiefs helmet. "I have all of the information necessary to modify the ships course, but I need to be inserted into that terminal in front of you. Hurry!"

The rifle he held was beginning to overheat.

"Damnit" The Master Chief said under his breath, as he ran as fast as he could to the control panel.

Another elite lunged at him from the side of the room, and tackled the Chief, sending them both sprawling to the ground. About five other elites jumped onto him, in an attempt to prevent him from moving. Their armour was more heavy than the Master Chief had thought they had been. He could lift humans, cars, even tanks without effort, but this was just too much for him. He lay there, trying to figure out what to do.

There was a clunking sound, followed by rapid fire as each of the elites got back onto their feet, and started firing their weapons at their enemy.

The Master Chief attempted to get up, but two plasma rifle barrels were held in front of his face. He laid back down, and saw the control panel, thirteen feet, Cortana informed him, away.

One by one, the elites fell, but the firing was getting slower, as the plasma weapons of this ally were overheating.

The Master Chief brought his arms down by his side slowly, so that he didn't alert his Covenant 'guards'. Then he forced his elbows into their knees, and with a sickening crunch, they broke. No longer able to hold up the elites that owned them, they buckled, and the Master Chief grabbed both rifles, and brought them onto the backs of the elites that had fallen to his mercy.

He watched as he saw that the future Chief had somehow gotten back up and was firing two plasma rifles at any elite that opposed him, hitting them with deadly accuracy.

These elites were stronger, faster and more accurate than the Chief could ever hope to be, and yet there he was, his future self, killing them off, like they were a pack of grunts.

"The control panel…." Cortana woke him out of his trance. The Master Chief turned and jogged over to it. "Right, now follow my instructions exactly…" she said, and walked him through it, as the future Chief picked off anything that got close to the panel.

A few seconds later, a loudspeaker announced something in the Covenant mother tongue, and the original Spartan stood back and fired upon the panel, until it was reduced to nothing more than a pile of burning circuits. Then, both Spartans stood back to back, and fired all four of their rifles, at the remaining elites, while making their way to a door. The future Spartan dropped his, having spent all of their energy while the ships course was being reset, and picked up a new pair.

They finished off the last few elites, before entering a hallway, and locking the door behind them.

**Well, that's another chapter complete. Sorry it took so long; what with all of the coursework and stuff I couldn't find the time to do it, but Chapter 5 is finally here. I will try to explain all of the time-travel stuff in the next chapter, when they try to get…no…you can wait until the next chapter :) Well, enjoy, people. Oh, and thanks Sxith-mon, for pointing out my errors. On consultation with my dad (ex-squaddie), I realized that there were a lot of differences in the military life that I wouldn't have thought even mattered. I shall try to be more accurate from no on, but still, if anyone finds errors, please report them to me. Oh yeah, and Please Review!!!! :) "I see the end coming. I see the darkness spreading. I see death." Cool :)**


	6. Flooding Suspicions

There was a metallic hiss as the door shut behind them. After the battle at the Ships Bridge, there was relatively little resistance for a while. Either the team sent to Earth was pitifully small, or, as the Chief worried, they were walking right into a trap. It didn't take long for the original Chief to notice that one of the doors was partially open. Which was weird; the Covenant either opened doors, or closed them, they didn't leave them half-open.

"What do you suppose is in there?" Cortana asked him, as if reading his thoughts.

"I'm not sure, but I'm inclined to find out." He replied, and summoned the other Chief. "Let's get this door open, I want to take a look around. This area is suspicious."

The future Chief seemed reluctant to open the door, but it was soon evident that the original Chief wanted passage into the next room. When they managed to part the metal, neither the cyborgs nor the AI's could believe what was there. Four jars stood alone in the middle of what looked like an elongated table. Inside three of them were motionless green orbs. The last jar was broken.

"What the hell...?" they both said in unison, and stepped forward to take a closer look. One of the orbs started moving, and the original Chief automatically raised his plasma rifle.

One word came to mind: Flood. Somehow, the Covenant had gotten hold of a specimen of the flood. This species was partly responsible for wiping out an entire Covenant armada; why on earth, or in this case, why in space, would they want to let even one of these horrifying creatures live?

Wait a minute: what had happened to the last jar?

As if to answer the lingering question, a green deformed body lunged out, and hit the future Chief on the back. Instantly, the suits audible alarm went off, as he fired on the creature. Each of the plasma bolts hit the creature with a sickening hiss, and green blood flowed out. But still the monstrosity continued forward, making gurgling sounds as it progressed, with deliberate slowness.

The plasma was dealt out generously, before one of the hits penetrated the chest, and thus the infection form buried there. There was a pop as the parasite burst and the host slumped to the floor.

It was only then, that the original Chief noticed the claw marks on the inside of the door. The fate given by the Flood was worse than any death.

The silence was broken only by the sound that was all to familiar to the infection forms, and it occurred to the future Chief that it must have had time to multiply.
    
    "Well," said the future Cortana; "at least now we know why there is such little resistance..."

"Whatever happened, we need to move fast. We all know how quickly the Flood can multiply, and we need to get to the reactors, now."

All of a sudden, another warrior form jumped out from behind them, and was about to attack the original Chief, when he instinctively whirled around and brought his fist to where the form's head was.

Well, it would have been, if the flood didn't have the horrifying tendency to emulsify the heads of the Covenant. As soon as the Chief realised that the attack had no effect, he brought his fist back, lower down, with more force that he had before. There was a disgusting crunch, as his fist snapped a few ribs, and ran through the liquid innards, and broke a few more ribs before exiting. The being hit the floor, with a last gurgle.

"We should really be going, now." He said, and the two hurriedly left.

*********

"Where the hell are we, Private Lament? I want some answers!" Sargent Johnson said in a low voice, as his squad moved through the multiple corridors. "Come on, keep up, ladies, we haven't got all day!"

"Hey, sarge, what just happened back there?" came a voice in return. The Sargent didn't reply; he had just as much of an idea as the rest of his mismatched team did. A few minutes after the Master Chief had sent them on their way, there had been an explosion, and everything changed. When they went back the way they thought they were meant to go, the Spartan had disappeared.

For about five minutes, they had been trying to trace their way to any possible exit. They turned one corner, and found a door that looked like it had been prized open. The Sargent made a series of hand movements to tell the marines to make sure that the area was clear, and what little chatter there was, although mere whispers, abruptly stopped. They slowly approached the door.

The first few marines to look through the doorway were rewarded with a sight that made them turn away in disgust. Through the doors, two green figures lay on the floor. The heads of both were bent back at abnormal angles, and one of them had a gaping hole in its chest. The other seemed to have been cut in half. The stench that the rotting corpses caused, though, was sickening, and one marine had to move out of the room.

Suddenly, the top part of the corpse that was cut in half got up, and tried to take a lunge at the closest marine, who was thrown back by the sheer strength of the creature. Seven SMG's, and four battle rifles fired in unison at the horror, and it was finally put down, accompanied by a pop.

"What the hell are those things, Sargent?"

"I have no idea, but we had better move our asses out of here, on the double!"

Finally, it was time for the good news, and it came from Private Lament. "I have some bad news and some good news, Sarge. The bad news is that I haven't been able to find out where we are, but I have been able to locate the Master Chief, and he isn't too far ahead of us. There must be something wrong with his signal, though, I'm picking up two of him."

"Two? Well, we'd better haul ass up to his position. At least then, we'll stand some chance against these...things..." He kicked one of the corpses. "Lament, lead the way. And stay alert, we don't know what these things are, or what they are capable of."

********

"Did you hear that?" came Cortana's voice after some gunshots were heard back where that came from.

"Oh, no. Not here." The original Master Chief murmured. "We need to go back. I left a squad of marines back there, but I didn't expect the time travel stuff to affect them, too."

The future Spartan didn't need to know, he had already been through this part of the past. What worried him was what lied ahead. He had seen his own death.

The Spartans turned around, and ran towards the sound of the marines.

They weren't a second too early, the future Chief ramming his gloved hand into the midsection of an attacking flood warriors back. There was a familiar popping sound, and the Chief knew that the opponent was dead.

When the marines saw this unknown version of the Spartan, they began to get suspicious. Although intent on moving the marines onward, both of the cyborgs filled in the missing gap in marine's times on the journey to the engine room. The Chief's inferiors were sceptical at first, but the future Chief, plus the numerous flood enemies encountered on the way seemed sufficient to keep them quiet.

Although the future Chief didn't mention it, he noticed that the Flood were getting a lot smarter, welding up doors with Covenant tools, and even using Covenant weapons in some cases. The problem came when they were within twenty feet of the engine room.

The flood had welded the door into the engine room shut, and were heavily guarding another passageway. This time, everyone noticed that the flood were carrying Covenant weapons, and had some blocks on their shoulders. It was only when one of the flood attacked another, and a yellow shimmering appeared, that they realised that this block was the shield generator.

"We're not all going to be able to get through that. Your only chance is to get through that door. I'll hold them off for as long as I can." Said the future Chief bluntly. The original Spartan put his hand on the other's shoulder, and spoke in a low voice.

"I can't let you do that, it's suicide, and that's not how I want to die." The reply that came from the future Chief was surprising.

"Don't worry. You'll understand later. Just get the marines through that door. I'll meet you in the engine room. Trust me." And with that, the future Master Chief ran into the crowd of heavily armed flood warriors. This time, it was the Sargent to give out the orders, having overheard the Spartan's conversation.

"I want this door open now, men." He turned to the Master Chief. "Sir, we could use your help." The Master Chief broke out of the trance he seemed to be in, watching where he had last seen himself turn a corner, followed by the pack of warrior infections. "OK, Sarge." He said, and picked up a marine's cutting tool before applying it to the door.

It wasn't long, before the door was opened, and there seemed to be no resistance. Cortana provided them with directions to the engine room, brining up a nav-point on the Chiefs HUD. After ten whole minutes, they had not encountered any resistance at all. This was making the Master Chief uneasier as time passed.

Then it happened, a scream from one of the marines, as an infection form dig itself deep into his back, trying to penetrate his spinal cord. This was followed by numerous bursts of rifle firing and miniature explosions as many more of the flood swarmed up at the surrounded marines.

The marines fired at the flood of flood with all of their ammunition, but when they ran out, it didn't take long for the marines to fall. Screams of pain, as their bodies were covered in the wriggling creatures, helpless against the continuous waves of the green balls.

Only the Master Chief and the Sargent were left, able to do nothing but hit the bobbing mass. The Master Chiefs shields were taking the brunt of the attack quite well, but he could see from the uncountable gashes and wounds that the Sargent wouldn't last long. They needed a solution if they were to have any chance to escape, and they needed it fast.

It was then that the Chief noticed where the flood seemed to be charging from another half-opened door. Christ, these things love half-opening things, he thought.

"Stay here" he said to the Sargent, not so much of an order, more advice.

Stepping on the creatures, popping many like little balloons, as he went, the Spartan waded to the door, threw a fragmentation grenade past it, and used all of his force to pull the two sections together. He timed how long he had left.... Three....

The unknown metal was reluctant to return to its closed position, and made it as hard as possible for the Chief to close them.

Two....

Pop went another flood infection. His suit had taken as much as it could comfortably, but now the audible alarm had triggered. The doors still didn't want to close.

One....

Come on, he willed himself. Even with his enhanced strength, the doors wouldn't budge. A cry of pain signalled that the Sarge had taken another substantial wound, but kept on fighting. The Chief noticed, while using all of his effort to close the door, that the Sargent's attacks were slowing down. The alarm reverberated through the Spartan's head. Must hurry....

Zero...

The grenade's timer fizzled away, and the resulting explosion caused any creature nearby to simply vaporise. Except for the suited figure. The doors had stuck, and the blast knocked him back into the wall behind him.

The infection forms were caught in a chain of small eruptions, and soon the place was quiet. The Sargent and the Chief were the only beings to have survived the explosion.

Slowly, the Master Chief's vision blurred, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

****

Well, there you go; another chapter. Sorry I haven't posted here recently, I've had quite a few things to do. This is the longest chapter yet, in a pitiful attempt to make it up to you, the reader. Quite a lot happens here, but there are a few loose ends, as always, that will continue into the next chapter. Hopefully the suspense they provide won't be too little:) Now, I shall leave you with my constant request for reviews, but this time with an evil twist: I shall not post the next chapter, unless I get at least, say, five reviews. That probably isn't even that many.... Oh well....


	7. Ambush

Footsteps pounded down the endless corridors, as the Chief lead the Flood on a long chase. One by one, his enemy was falling, forgotten in the Floods desire for this new host. The purple walls absorbed the superheated plasma, before providing another corridor to run down; left, right, left, left; the run seemed to span for miles.

"Oh, no." The Chief muttered to himself, as three walls formed in front of him. It was a dead-end, and the Flood knew it. They slowed down, sensing that their quarry was cornered.

"The Floods parasitic nature belies their intelligence." A familiar voice rang through the Master Chiefs head, but he couldn't place it. Abruptly, it occurred to the Chief just how unorthodox it was for the Covenant to have useless objects, let alone an entire dead end. It was probably a trap, and even though this Spartan was the most renowned of them all, he didn't want to bet his chances.

"Cortana, I need a way out of here, right now." The construct didn't reply. "Cortana?"

All of a sudden, the entire corridor was engulfed in a purple light, and everything stopped. The Chief could see what was happening, but could not move any of his limbs, which concerned him.

"That one, there." He heard an Elite say. His 'upgrade' from a Spartan II to a Spartan III included his learning the entire Covenant language for each species. Two gold Elites moved from a higher-ranking platinum one, and proceeded to fix an electronic circuit onto the Chiefs chest plate, before dragging him from the purple light.

Once out of the light, the Spartan realised that he could once again move his body, but the electronic circuit was preventing is suit from making it an easy task. The fact that these were gold Elites meant that what he did do didn't count too much towards any escape plans.

************

"Can you hear me, Sir? Cortana, I thought you said his vitals were stabilising"

"They are. Just give me a second, there's only so much I can do to help. Wait, he's coming around. Chief? Chief? Can you head me? At last."

As soon as the Spartan had fully opened his eyes, he was back onto his feet, and looking for his battle rifle. It was the Sergeant who brought his current situation into perspective.

"...So, as you can see, we're all that remain" The Sergeant finished.

"Right, " the Chief replied, "Cortana, see if you can locate my future self. Sarge and I are going to go find this reactor."

"I'm right on it."

The two remaining humans ran off down the corridor, and it didn't take Cortana five minutes to have located the other Spartan.

"Bingo, there he is," She stated matter-of-factly, while bringing up a schematic onto the Chiefs HUD, "The map shows him to be right down this corridor, a couple hundred yards from our current location."

"Finally, some good news." The Sergeant commented with new enthusiasm. "Lets get going."

The future Spartan already knew they were on their way, and wasted no time ensuring that their path was clear via his headset.

"Come on, there's no time to waste." He turned and sprinted off, leaving the original Chief to use the ships schematics to follow him.

Cortana began to get suspicious in her own virtual way; something was wrong with the way the new Chief was acting, although she couldn't quite put her 'finger' on it...

None of them could hear the future Chief speak in Covenant tongue over the radio.

****************

In the engine room, the group of veteran Elites, both Platinum and Gold were both waiting. The room was full of pipes and boxes, with few lights. There were ample shadows to conceal them. All they had to do was wait.

The black-ops Elites would be busy keeping the Flood from the corridors that the Spartan and his human friend would be using. The orders had explicitly stated that it was imperative that the Spartan be attacked only by those lesser Elites who felt brave enough, until he got to the engine room. Of course, none of the lesser Elites felt brave enough: This was the Spartan who had single-handedly wiped out an entire armada. They felt it Best to let the others feel brave, so that they would live to see another day.

With the many corridors the Spartan had to pass, it would be hard to prevent him from retreating. Once he got here, though, the exit would be locked, and there would be no way to go. It would be then that the ambush take place. Everything would go to plan. The prophets themselves had agreed that it was foolproof. In the words of a blue Elite, not even a grunt could mess such plans up. The famous Spartan subsequently put him to rest completely invalidating the plan.

Nonetheless, this plan would go ahead. There was no way the green one would be able to escape this trap. Not even his virtual friend could help him.

**********************

ARMOURY was stencilled on the silver door, in Covenant symbols. The language didn't matter much. He knew what was in the room. A brief search and he found what he wanted: an electronic lock, coated in the same alloy Hunters use as shields.

He didn't enter a password. Instead, he just ripped the casing off, pulled out a dark purple wire, and entered the now open room.

It was dark in the room, but he had no problem locating the weaponry he wanted. Two small silver rods, a pack of blue orbs, two plasma rifles, and a few energy cells for the rifles. Nothing would stop him.

Ever since he had seen this future Spartan, he had known that he would die at the hands of the Covenant. Now he knew why he was wrong, what he had to do. He raced down the corridor to the engine room, attempting to intercept the others.

Hopefully, he wouldn't be too late. But then, he had lost hope a long time ago.

Well, finally, here you go. It took long enough to figure out how to get to where I wanted, and exams and coursework didn't help a bit. Thanks to those four who did actually review my work. Hopefully, I should have chapter 8 up soon (yeah, right :P). As usual, I shall post my requests for reviews, and leave it at that. See you next time (well, I won't actually 'see' you, but you get the idea). Now, Sheila will love me for who I am, not just my good looks. But for those, too. – You know where it's from. And if you don't, you disgust me:P 


	8. Zero Betrayals

The Master Chief caught up with his future self, the Sergeant following closely. They reached a pair of thick metal doors, and immediately slowed down. There was very little light inside the generator room, and even the Spartans enhanced vision had trouble making out anything.

"Come on, we have no time to waste." The future Chief said as he walked into the room. There was a hint of excitement in his voice, but his company had no reason to suspect anything, and so followed him inside.

The moment all three were in the room, the doors shut behind them. They were now all enveloped in pitch black. Only the Chiefs motion detector showed anything. Unfortunately, the blast from the fragmentation grenade had destroyed the Master Chiefs lighting system, although why the future Chief didn't activate his light, was a mystery.

Just as the Sergeant was about to ask someone to turn on a light, the future Spartan flicked on his plasma sword. Sensing danger, the Chief mimicked the action – just in time to block a powerful attack from the future Chief.

"What the hell?!?" Shouted out the Sergeant in disbelief, as the two Spartans went head to head. All of a sudden, the Sergeant felt uneasy – and it wasn't that two genetically enhanced super-soldiers were fighting right in front of him, either. It was only his subconscious mind that registered the rows of glinting eyes in the dim blue light of the room.

Sparks of superheated plasma scorched the floor, as the two suited figures battled in the dark, but it was the original Chief who won in the end; knocking the plasma sword out of his future self's hand, he proceeded to ram him against the wall, with spine-crushing force.

The energy shielding system sparked for a few seconds, but it was the shielding system of the Elite behind him that opened up the entire room for a few seconds. Rows of Elites surrounded the room, which, sensing that their cover had been blown, activated their plasma swords one by one. The room was bathed in a soft blue glow, which at least gave the Chief something to work with.

Slowly, the Spartan backed up to the corpse that was the Master Chief's future. Setting aside the questions he had about what had happened, he reached down, grabbed the swords, threw one to the Sergeant, and activated his new one. All at once, the battle started.

The Chief pushed his two swords into the torso of a nearby Elite, pulling one out through it's right shoulder, and bringing it down behind him, through the centre of another Elite's head. He brought his left sword up to block an incoming attack, giving him time to thrust his other 'blade' into the Elite to his right.

Three rushed him from behind, forcing the Chief to turn around and swipe the superheated plasma through the first Elite, before the second blocked this attack, brought it's sword above it's head, and brought it down with deadly accuracy.

Fortunately, though, the Chief had stepped to the right, turned, and brought his sword through the second Elite's right arm, tearing through various ligaments and assorted muscles, before scissoring the final Elite with the two swords and kicking in the 'face' of the second Elite, killing it instantly.

The two more Elites came in, but where smart enough to stay out of range of the Spartan. Slowly moving in, they backed the Spartan into the middle of the room, where he met the Sergeant, heavily bleeding, but still alive. The Elites had formed a full circle around the pair, in which a small gap appeared. Through it walked a Platinum Elite, which held two plasma swords itself.

"Deactivate your weapon." It said, in a low voice, filled with hatred and spite. This green-suited figure had killed one of its ancestors years ago, in the unacceptable loss that was Halo. Copying the last words caught over the radio before its ancestor was killed, it said "Your destruction is the **still** will of the Gods, and we are **still **their instrument."

"I've heard that one before" mumbled the Spartan under his breath, but deactivated both swords all the same. The Sergeant did the same. Complying with the Elite's demands would buy him some time.

"Now, you die." The Elite said, walking slowly to the centre.

"Come on!!" said the figure, willing himself to go even faster than he was already going. Time was running out, and he still had a fair bit of ground to cover. He flicked a switch on the swords handle. Now, it glowed red, instead of blue.

"Cortana, a little help would be nice round about now..." Said the Spartan, hoping his faithful AI had some suggestions.

"Well, I could increase the power to your battle suits shielding, but it would short out after a few seconds. Alternately, you could reactivate your plasma swords, and do what you do best, Chief."

"I'll take that as a complement" mused the Spartan, as he reactivated both of his swords, throwing one behind him, skewering three Elite's in the process.

Now it was the Sergeants turn to help – noticing a large cluster of Elite's charging towards him, he activated his plasma sword, and pulled a dark green orb out of one of his grenade pouches, pulled the pin, and threw it. Diving backwards, he yelled "Fire in the hole!!!", ensuring the plasma sword would keep his path clean.

The resulting explosion shook the area, and tore through several bodies. Purple blood splashed everywhere, alerting the Covenant team to the Sergeants existence. While the rest of the Elite's got to work on the Master Chief, who's sword was rapidly depleting, the leader walked up to the Sergeant.

"You would have made a worthy warrior, had you not been human." It spoke to him, before picking him up in one hand, and throwing him across the room, into the far wall. It seemed to glide over to the Sergeant, the platinum-coloured armour appearing to shimmer in the dim light that was provided."

"You have fought like a warrior. But you shall not die like one." The Elite raised its plasma sword, until it was right at the edge of the Sergeants arm, the intense heat of the sword smouldering his skin.

"No; you shall pray for your death. It is no more than a creature such as yourself deserves."

The Spartan turned to see what was happening, tried to get closer to the Sergeant to help him, but the swarm of Elite's was overwhelming. He had no choice but to keep fighting.

There it was: a big door, with the muffled sound of fighting behind it. There was only a small crack separating them, but with his intense strength, he was able to prise them open slowly. The fighting inside was so heavy, that none of the enemy seemed to sense his presence. While the Master Chief struggled with the Elite's piling into him, it was the grunts of pain from the Sergeant that drew his attention. Slipping behind the major confusion, the character crept up behind the leading Elite, drew up his red Plasma sword, and swiped it clean through the fowl creature's gut.

The Elite fell to the floor, its sword deactivating automatically. He turned around, and did the same to four of the Elite's attacking the Master Chief. He skewered another two, when his sword begun to throb quickly. Picking up a second sword, he deactivated the first, and continued his bloodshed.

Soon, with the Spartans help, the entire ambush group had been dispatched.

Silence filled the air, as the Chief tried to figure out what had happened; the character standing in front of him seemed remarkably familiar, but, he had killed him just minutes ago. It was the future Chief…

Sorry it's taken sooo long for me to write this chapter. It's longer than I had intended, and I haven't even gotten to the interesting (well, in my eyes, anyway :P) part. Exams and everything have been in the way, and inspiration seems so hard to come by, these days. Oh well. I leave you now, with the hope that you might review my chapter, and that chapter 9 shouldn't be out too long from now, although I don't promise anything. I write as and when I feel like it, which isn't often, unfortunately. Until next time...

Oh, and thanks to whomever didn't feel like logging in (:P), for the typo. I hadn't seen that, and Word hadn't picked it up, either. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft!!! :P Well, apart from the Xbox, Halo, PC's, NOT Windows, mainly ME, 2000, XP, etc. I still stand by my belief that the best MS OS, apart from DOS, is 98SE. But, I side-track. Thanks to all who reviewed my chapters, etc, etc. Bye:P


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